air conditioning and insulation
ABOUT US
We are a group of students, faculty and laboratory assistants at IIT Kanpur bound by the mantra that fruits of innovation and research done at the laboratory belong to the larger society and that we must work hard to get it there as quickly as we can. We belong to the Soft Materials Laboratory of Department of Chemical Engineering. We carry out whole gamut of research from fundamental to practical to product development. We excel in Bio-mimetic Engineering. We observe nature, we analyze and learn the underlying principles that dictate different happenings in it, we identify problems in the society that we can address using the knowledge, we conceive new ideas and work on them; all these efforts finally result in novel technological innovations.
Few examples of our innovative products are state-of-the-art heat insulation sheets, Trilobite inspired bi-convex aspheric optical lens, Gecko inspired reusable and washable adhesive and insects inspired rewritable and reprintable paper. We wish to bring these innovations to the society at large. We believe that our innovative and energy efficient solutions can help in saving the environment from pollution to arresting global warming, in reducing the cost of education to creating substitutes for imports and thereby these innovations help in creation of wealth through sustainable living. To realize our dream of building a research program that remains constantly engaged with the society we have incubated our company GitiTech Private Limited.
We welcome you to see our webpage, to know about our products and to connect to us for further interaction.
PROBLEM
In hot climates like India’s, rooftop tanks and brick-and-mortar buildings become heat traps. Water becomes un-usably hot, and homes become uncomfortable, especially for families without access to air conditioning. The hot summer affects health, comfort and importantly energy consumption.
● Demand of Residential Air Conditioners (RACs) is ever increasing, from 1.2 billion in today’s date to over 4.5 billion by 2050.
● Power input to a compressor of a 2-ton AC (using R410A as refrigerant) is ~2.15 kW.
● Huge increase in power requirement in summer months, with consequent green-house effect, urban heat island effect.
● RACs can add about 132 GT of CO2-equivalent (CO2) emissions between now and 2050.
● Significant increase in particulate matter in air.
● Maintenance issues: refrigerant leakage, electric control failure, problems with sensor, contamination with mold and consequent health effect.
● Water becomes unusably hot, and homes become uncomfortable, especially for families without access to air conditioning.
● This condition affects health, comfort, and energy consumption.
WE OFFER
● Light, flexible, foldable, cooling insulation sheet for placing on roof and wall of a building.
● The insulation sheet consists of super-hydrophobic (contact angle of water ~150 deg) fabric pouch, with light and porous packing placed inside.
● Cooling effect via three different mechanisms:
- Reflection of solar radiation
- Radiative cooling
- Thermal insulation
● Decrease in inner wall surface temperature of room by 10-12 degree Celsius.
● Superhydrophobic and self-cleaning surface.
● Air conditioning requirement to decrease by at least 15%
● Offer dual functionality—roof and tank insulation